Monday, October 31, 2016

This month Elaine Roberts interviews well known
author, Julie Cohen about her writing retreats.

Can you tell us something about your workshops—how you
decide the subject matter?

On my guided retreats, I let the participants’ own
needs decide the subject of the workshops. The participants have to submit a
sample of their work before the retreat—usually the first chapter and a

synopsis—and from that, I (and my teaching partner) identify several common
areas to focus on, be that whole-text issues like plotting, voice, character,
pacing, or sentence-level issues like showing and telling or creating
convincing dialogue, or larger career issues like how to brand yourself as a
writer or how to write the breakout novel.

Do you usually run them by yourself?

I sometimes run my own guided retreats (I’ll be
running one at Chez Castillon, in France, in June), but I’m running my next
retreat with bestselling author and Faber Academy writing tutor Rowan Coleman.
Rowan and I have been teaching together for several years now, and have run
courses for The Guardian and Literature Wales, as well as our own retreats.

In March we will also have a special guest: super
agent Lizzy Kremer of David Higham Associates, who will deliver a Q&A on
getting an agent, publishing, and building your career.

As our blog is for writers, can you tell me how your
workshop would benefit RNA members?

Rowan and I are both highly experienced in writing
across the spectrum of women’s fiction. Our books have both been selected for
the Richard and Judy Book Club and we’ve both been shortlisted, or won, RoNAs
and Love Stories Awards. I started my writing career as a member of the RNA New
Writers’ Scheme. We’re both passionate about women’s fiction and romantic
fiction, and knowledgeable about the markets and the challenges writers face
when writing in these genres. Both

Folly Farm

of us have coached writers who have gone
onto sign with agents, get publishing deals, and even become bestsellers.

Is there anything participants usually need to do in
preparation before attending?

For our March workshop, we ask that the participants
send us the first chapter and synopsis of their work in progress. It helps us,
as tutors, if we know what a writer would like to get out of the course—then we
can make sure we support them.

For my guided retreat at Chez Castillon in June, I’ll
ask for a longer sample of the participants’ work and generally I spend
extensive time with each writer talking about their manuscript.

Are your workshops usually for one day or longer?

Our guided retreat in March is over a weekend, 3-5
March 2017. There are workshops, time to write, and one-to-one time with Rowan
or me to discuss your manuscript.

The guided retreat in June 2017 at Chez Castillon will
be for an entire week.

When workshops are longer than one day where can
people stay?

The March workshop will take place at Folly Farm,
outside Bristol, and includes single en-suite accommodation at this
environmentally friendly conference venue in the countryside. All food is
provided, usually locally grown, and there are wonderful local walks.

In June, we stay at Chez Castillon in southwest
France, in a beautiful 18th-century house (with swimming pool) in
the heart of the town of Castillon la Bataille. Delicious food and local wine
are provided and our hosts, Janie and Mickey Wilson, are fantastic.

What does it usually cost to attend your workshops?

The weekend retreat at Folly Farm in March with Rowan
Coleman is £525.00 including accommodation and all food, but not travel.

The weeklong-guided retreat at Chez Castillion is
likely to cost about £775 (tbc), including accommodation and most food, but not
travel.

Do your workshops fill up quickly?

It depends on the workshop, but generally, quite
quickly. We have many writers who come back again and again.

How much time does it take you to organise your workshops?

What takes the most time is all the admin stuff:
booking forms, receipts, payments, etc. I am fairly organized but it’s an
effort when my normal day-to-day career is being creative!

Elaine is a member of the RNA’s New Writers’ Scheme
and is currently working on a family saga set in the 1800s. She has sold short stories worldwide and enjoys attending RNA events such as the London Chapter and the annual conference. Elaine is a great fan of writing retreats either week-long by the sea with friends or one-day retreats with fellow writers in her home town of Dartford, Kent.

Elaine runs a writing blog along with writer, Francesca Capaldi Burgess called

Friday, October 28, 2016

Thank
you to Sue Shepherd for this delightful piece about the use of our favourite words.

During the final, final edits of my latest novel, ‘Love
Them and Leave Them’, it became apparent to both myself and my editor that there
were certain phrases that I really
liked to use. Of course I’m not unique, every author has their preferred words
that they constantly return to, we just can’t help it.

What I found interesting
about mine was the fact that not only had I often used them in the narrative

,
but my characters had also used them in their dialogue. I knew all my
characters very well, I could picture their mannerisms, I could hear their
voices and accents, and yet, occasionally, out of nowhere, one of them would
utter a phrase that simply wasn’t them
at all, in fact it was 100% me.

What was happening
there? Why were these characters, who I knew as intimately as any of my real
life friends, suddenly saying something that was so completely ‘Sue Shepherd’?

I could only conclude
that somehow, subconsciously, my own voice was determined to be heard. This
reminded me that even though these people are real to me, so much so that they wake
me at night and demand to be heard, the truth is that they all came from inside
my head. It makes no difference who they are, male, female, old, young, goodie
or villain, they all have a little bit of me inside them. (Yes, I’m now rubbing
my hands together in true Doctor Frankenstein fashion!)

In some ways I’m rather
pleased they take after me, I’m extremely fond of some, and even the baddies have
wormed their way into my affections. But I remain very grateful to my editor
for pointing out my duplications and for making me aware when my characters spoke
out of turn.

It does make me wonder
what words other authors can’t help repeating? What did Agatha Christie find
herself having to keep a check on? Did J K Rowling’s editor have to break the
news to her that she’d gone overboard on a certain phrase? Once we, the
writers, are made aware of our little foibles, we can do our best to minimise
the usage in future. But words are a part of our upbringing, a part of our
everyday lives, indeed, they’re a part of who we are. Our favourites are stubborn
little buggers, and they will slip out!

Here are some comments
from our members about their ‘favourite’ words:

“I ‘just’ ‘actually’
‘obviously’ know what you mean. And also (hanging my head in shame) I will
admit that my characters swear a lot in my first drafts, because I swear a lot.
Oops!”

Alison May.

“My characters ‘just’ do so many things
‘abruptly’ or ‘suddenly’ that I dread to think what they look like in the
reader’s imagination.”

Sue Moorcroft.

One of my books had a
character who ‘raised his eyebrows’ about 17 times. Though I have removed some
of those eyebrows since then.”

Colin Garrow

“My
headmistress sleuth, Harriet Quigley, not only raises her eyebrows, she shrugs
a lot and bites her lip far too often! I have to do a check before I let her
go.”

Nicola
Slade

“My
characters are constantly pulling things. I don't mean they're on the pull, but
they pull doors, pull on coats, pull away. When I edit I have to remind them to
tug, drag, grab and other more interesting words.”

Kath
McGurl

“My word is ‘though’ at
the end of sentences. It’s especially noticeable when I write in the first
person. I have to go through at the editing stage and remove a lot.”

Jennie Bohnet.

About
Sue:

Sue
Shepherd writes contemporary romance and enjoys creating novels with heart, laughs
and naughtiness. She doesn’t pull any punches when choosing her subjects, but
manages to handle her characters’ challenging situations with sensitivity and humour.

Her
debut novel 'Doesn't Everyone Have a Secret?' was published by Corazon Books in
March 2015.It reached the top 10 UK
Kindle chart, and also topped the romantic comedy, contemporary romance and humour
charts. It became available in paperback on Amazon.UK in November 2015.

Sue’s
second novel ‘Love Them and Leave Them’ was published in September 2016.

Sue
lives on the picturesque Isle of Wight with her husband, two sons and a
standard poodle.Her passions in life are:
her family, writing, the seaside and all the beautiful purple things her sons
have bought her over the years.Ask Sue
to plan too far in advance and you'll give her the heebie-jeebies and she'd
prefer you not to mention Christmas until at least November!

Love Them and Leave Them:

Sometimes you have to leave the one you love …
sometimes you’re the one who’s left behind. The new heartwarming and
heartbreaking romantic comedy from the No.1 bestselling author of Doesn’t
Everyone Have a Secret?

On his way home, Ed makes a split-second decision that changes the lives of all
those who love him. Six years on, Ed’s daughter, Jessie, is stuck in a job with
no prospects, her dreams never fulfilled. It will take more than her unreliable
boyfriend, Chris, and temperamental best friend, Coco, to give her the
confidence to get her life back on track.

But what if Ed had made another decision? It could all have been so
different …

Six years on, Ed’s daughter, Jessica, has a successful career, loving
boyfriend, Nick, and a keen eye on her dream home. But when new clients, a
temperamental Coco, and her unreliable boyfriend, Chris, walk into her life,
Jessica’s perfect world soon starts to unravel.

Love Them and Leave Them is a story of love, families, friendship and a world
of possibilities. Whichever decision Ed makes, the same people are destined to
come into his daughter’s life, sometimes in delightfully different ways. And
before they can look forward to the future, they will all have to deal with the
mistakes of the past.

Wednesday, October 26, 2016

We welcome Jean Fullerton with
this month’s edition of Focus on RNA Chapters.

It
gives me great pleasure to feature one of our long-established Chapters of the
RNA blog and I'm very grateful to Sheila Daglish for taking the time to tells
us about the North Devon Group.

'Small
and (almost) beautiful' possibly best describes our North Devon Chapter as we
gather for coffee, cake, and a two-hour working session in the spacious and
pleasant cafeteria at St. John's

Garden Centre, Barnstaple. We meet
approximately every six weeks, although winter dates are flexible since our
(currently seven) members must tackle ninety-minute drives across Exmoor,
Dartmoor or sometimes-stormy coastal roads.

Our
Chapter was formed about ten years ago and we welcome new members, whether or
not RNA, because fresh ideas and experiences are always appreciated. We agree
and are reassured by the fact that, for all of us, holiday weeks, home demands
and crises are inevitable, sometimes rendering a daily writing routine
impossible. Family life is so often at the core of what we write anyway and,
importantly, we know that, whether actively writing or not, all our members
make a valued contribution to discussions around the table.

The
last few months have brought successes and new adventures. Patricia Fawcett
attended the Writers' Summer School at Swanwick in August, brought us news of
current short story writing requirements and has plenty of ideas for these - a
temporary change from her regular novels. In the summer she gave a talk at
Buckland Abbey, one-time home of Sir Francis Drake, where her audience
particularly liked the supporting visual aids she used. Frances Evesham's first
two Exham mysteries can now be obtained in paperback, and she reports that
internet sales of her other books are doing well. At Ilminster Literary
Festival she presented a talk on her other love -

Victorian
fiction.

Amanda
Robinson is writing regularly, an erotic romance which now needs to be finally
pulled together. Anne Holman is working on a Regency tale, having had previous
success in this genre, and was happy to see 'The Art of Love', her 24th pocket
novel, published in July, hopefully also in Large Print. A further pocket novel
is currently awaiting a result - preferably acceptance! Lucy Alexander, our
newest recruit, attended the RNA Lancaster Conference and, after a one-to-one
session with a M&B editor, was asked to submit the next two chapters of her
medical romance. An autumn writing course with Kate Walker at Swanwick should
help with the final polish.
There's one last success for our Chapter to record and that's Sheila Daglish's
'Dangerous Waters' - a My Weekly pocket novel published in May, and
accepted for Large Print.

Our
North Devon location and cafeteria venue mean that we can't realistically
invite guest speakers but, between meetings, through e-mails we always have
someone ready to offer encouragement, sympathy, ideas or opinions. Our Chapter
does not have a website, nor has it ventured onto Facebook or Twitter, although
individual members often find these useful.

For
2017 we plan more of our well-tried recipe - friendly, supportive meetings,
always receptive to new trends and movement in the publishing and self-publishing
worlds. 'Small and (almost) beautiful', as you'll see from the above success
stories, is a concept that seems to work!

Contact for North Devon
Chapter is:

Sheila
Daglish, 01271 850006.

E-mail:
themalthouse94@ gmail.com

Thank you so much, Sheila, for that comprehensive overview of the North Devon Chapter.

Jean x

About Jean:

Jean was born in East End of London and spent all her career as a district nurse in East London but is now a full-time writer. Wedding Bells for Nurse Connie, is her current release. Her next novel Pocketful of Dreams, set in the turbulent years of WW2, is due for release in June 2017 and is the first in next East London series.Her first series with Orion Fiction was set in the Victorian period after which she jumped forward to post-war East London.

She is a proud graduate from the NWS and passionate about the local chapters, which is why she has taken on the role of Chapters Liaison.

Thank you to Jean and Sheila for
this month’s blog contribution. If members would like to be featured on the RNA blog please contact the team on elaineeverest@aol.com

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Loves Me Loves Me Not

Romantic Novelists' Association

We work to enhance and promote the various types of romantic and historical fiction, to encourage good writing in all its many varieties, to learn more about our craft and help readers enjoy it.

Romantic Fiction covers an enormous range, from short stories through category romance and much of women's fiction, to the classics. The nature of romantic fiction means that most of these novels are written and read by women. The RNA, however, boasts a number of very successful male authors amongst their membership.